SMARTBoard 800

If you know me, then you know I am a huge advocate and lover of all things SMART. I was blessed with the amazing opportunity to spend a week this summer in Calgary at the SMART headquarters and got to exlore many of the SMART products. While we unfortunately do not have any of the 800 series SMARTBoards in our district, you can bet that I will ensure any new boards that we purchase are the 800 series. We talk a great deal about increasing collaboration in the classroom, and what a better way to do it than with a board where 4 students can be working simultaneously. The 800 board has become much more user friendly, especially when thinking about students at the younger level. The multi-touch features make for easy manipulation and I can only imagine how much my students would love this board. Want to learn more and see the board in action? Check out these great links! http://goo.gl/ElPpF and http://goo.gl/pMOvR

Tech Tools for the English Classroom

http://prezi.com/rjlnnyzx0tug/tech-tools-for-the-english-classroom/
This is a wonderful presentation with lots of great ideas for using technology in the classroom. Each site has interactive and engaging resources for all grade levels.

Filamentality

Filamentality is a great way to design an interactive learning environment for students. The site walks you through a step by step process for gathering your links and organizing them into your own online learning activity. This is a great site for creating webquests or just a collection of your favorite sites. Want to see what is already out there for you to use in your classroom? Try searching Filamentality by your grade level for TONS of learning environments that are already created! Check it out at http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/

Grammar Practice

This week's tip is a combination of several different interactive sites for practicing grammar. All of these sites include fun games to engage students and track their progress.

To Bee or Nottoobee - http://www.funbrain.com/verb/index.html
In this activity, students have to choose the correct verb to complete the sentences. Students practice the correct use of am, is, are, were and was.

Word Frog - http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/frog/
Help the frog find the correct fly to eat! The correct fly must have the matching synonym, antonym or homonym.

Flip A Chip - http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/flip/
Choose the correct ending for the word to correctly complete the sentence. There are six levels and each completed paragraph can be printed and checked for accuracy.

They're, Their, There - http://www.better-english.com/easier/theyre.htm
Choose the correct word for the sentence. The teacher is able to track when an incorrect answer is chosen.

Wacky Web Tales

Remember Mad Libs? Wacky Web Tales challenges students to apply their knowledge of parts of speech. Type in the words correlating to the correct parts of speech and your story is created in seconds! What a neat way to practice reading and grammar skills! Visit Wacky Web Tales at http://www.eduplace.com/tales/

Gloucester County

Gloucester County Schools has a great collection of sites for PK-5. The sites are organized by subject, including a section for SOL Review. The Resource section includes activities for art, music, PE, library, guidance and speech. Be sure to also click on the link at the bottom to view additional activities from the VSTE Conference. Visit the site at http://gets.gc.k12.va.us/elementary/

Flip Book

We are all used to creating Flip Books with paper, but now you can create and print them online! You can have up to 10 pages and choose from nine different layouts. Pictures can be added to the pages to reinforce material. The site includes many great ideas on how to use flip books in the classroom. Check out this great resource at http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/flipbook/